Monthly Archives: July 2014

Every year in July my sons go to Arkansas Interfaith Choir Camp at Subiaco Abbey in Subiaco, Arkansas (close to Paris, AR). From a mother’s perspective, singing in the choir is one of the most awesome things my boys can do. Choir Camp is an amazing thing for them to experience. It gives them life skills that every boy needs.

Church singing Saturday Morning at Choir Camp

For my sons to have strong men singing in the choir as role models is priceless. I couldn’t hope for a better image for my boys to have of what good men do in our community. There are so many outlets and celebrations of the violent, domineering, aggressive way of being male in our culture that choir culture has given our family a fabulous balance. Yes son, there are other ways to be masculine that don’t involve guns.

The Church at Subiaco

Having a commitment to our church choir gives them a sense of being valued in our community. They have a job to do. The church needs them. Their voice is important.

Choir Camp gives my sons abilities to perform in leadership roles, to learn interpersonal relationships, and practice those skills with their peers, guided by loving adults from their community who care about them.

Choir camp gets my crazy boys all up on stage, in front of people in a way that is not invasive or scary. They perform a broadway production every year with opportunities to have leading or supportive roles.

Sean Goofing around with Friends at Choir Camp

Gives my sons a sense of belonging.

Gives them the experience of being a part of the team. Yes you are important and yes the team is important. Gives them a purpose bigger than self.

Gives my boys the opportunity to flex their creativity, explore their voice, and express themselves.

Choir (and Charlie-our choir guru) teaches my sons that singing is a great way to express joy and gratitude. How awesome is that? I know, right?

Beloved Charlie the Choir Guru at St. Paul’s

Choir in church can lead to choir in high school, which every boy knows is where the girls are. And there is nothing more sexy to young women than strong young men who can sing and dance.

Choir is helping to turn my sweet boys into more well rounded young men.

Final Broadway NumberZachs Group Having FunThe Pool at SubiacoZach practices hand bellsShenanigans on the Waterslide at Choir Camp

Me and My Boys after Choir Camp 2014

I am so grateful for this community that provides a safe haven for my boys, guidance, a sense of responsibility, and belonging that seem so absent in our culture right now. Our family is fortunate to be surrounded by such great, loving people.

Wendy Finn is the mother of 4 boys, owner of I.M. Spa, a Raw Food Enthusiast and educator, a world traveler in pursuit of superior massage education, a Master Massage Therapist of 20 plus years, a gardener, and a nursing student. She’s passionate about touching people and sharing health.

Stress Relief. How to cut loose when your kids are away at camp for a week.

I’m an attached parent. An attachment parent? I don’t know what to call it, but I’m a very involved parent. I love my kids. Love to be with them. Spend all my time with them. They’re pretty awesome guys.

My Beautiful Boys

I never really get a lot of time in my own head without interruptions. So what do I do to cut loose while all the kids are away at camp for a whole week for the first time ever, ever, ever?

Well I’ll tell you what I do.

Instead of running to school and work and back this week; I walked. And then I got all crazy and I drove across town and ran at Gulley Park to run because I haven’t been able to run there in forever.

Gulley Park GazeboThe Path At Gulley Park

You can laugh if you want but I felt so free.

Me running at Gulley Park instead of running to work was similar to the first bath you take after camping in the woods for a week.

Tomorrow I might get really crazy and run at the Lake. How awesome would that be?

Wendy Finn is the mother of 4 boys, owner of I.M. Spa, a Raw Food Enthusiast and educator, a world traveler in pursuit of superior massage education, a Master Massage Therapist of 20 plus years, a gardener, and a nursing student. She’s passionate about touching people and sharing health.

My husband Craig wasn’t feeling very good and was donating plasma to help with his tuition when the phlebotomist turned him away on 3 separate occasions because of high lipid levels in the plasma.

They didn’t say to him, “Hmm, maybe you should go get that checked. That’s a lot of fat in the plasma.” Craig took it upon himself to get it checked at the doctor.

His LDLs, the low density lipoproteins that are supposed to be under 100, were up to 148. This is not a good thing for him.

How Atherosclerosis Happens

LDLs are the ‘bad fats’ that clog up arteries and lead to atherosclerosis, which can lead to heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke.

Craig’s doctor told him that day that he needed to start taking Lipitor to manage those fats.

The doctor didn’t say, “Hmm, your LDLs are really high. That can lead to atherosclerosis, which can lead to heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke. Obviously we need to get the fat content in your blood down and the best way to do that is with food. Here are some resources for how to do that. You also need regular exercise, here are some resources for that. If your LDLs are still high after this many weeks, we can consider Lipitor. But you should know that any time you take a medication there are side effects and it’s in your best interest to fix this with diet and exercise now while you can still fix it because heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and you don’t want to be one of that number.”

If Craig was anybody other than who he is, he would have come away from that doctor’s visit feeling like a victim, like something horrible was happening (and it is), but that it was out of his control. He would have gone down the path of medication and becoming his disease. He would have continued to put trashy food in his body and feel like there was nothing he could do about his condition which would inevitably decline. He would have told his friends that his doctor told him he had to be on lipitor and wasn’t that terrible? Part of getting older (shrug).

But Craig has been married to me for 25 years. And I’m weird. In a good way, but weird in that what I’m doing with my food trip is totally not mainstream. Basically I’m an omnivore with strong raw food tendencies, such that 80 to 90% of my intake is raw vegan goodness. My kids don’t know what a Happy Meal is. Craig has watched me get my wakeup call to change my relationship with food because of my anaphylactic allergies.

He sees me living it, hears me talking it, watches me eat, sleep, and breathe real live raw food. Sometimes he eats it. But obviously not always. So when he got the wakeup call at the doctor’s office about his LDL count he refused the lipitor and started doing more grocery shopping for himself. He’s walking 5 miles to the bus stop every day for exercise, and I’ve been seeing him making green smoothies and veggies more than his comfortable nut and seed mix.

He says he was grabbing convenience foods when he was at class and away from home. Pizzas, sugary muffins, fast food. You can lie to yourself and the people around you, but your body is not nearly as forgiving.

It will be interesting to see how fast he can get that number down and how his weight will change in the process because right now he has a good heft around his midsection, another risk factor for heart disease.

In the meantime, my entrepreneurial head is wondering how to incentivize doctors to educate and empower their patients (as if getting healthy wasn’t a good enough motivator). Surely there is a business model that can provide an alternative to enabling patients and our addictive bad eating habits.

Wendy Finn is the mother of 4 boys, owner of I.M. Spa, a Raw Food Enthusiast and educator, a world traveler in pursuit of superior massage education, a Master Massage Therapist of 20 plus years, a gardener, and a nursing student. She’s passionate about touching people and sharing health.

Woke up this morning, homemade raw granola with almond milk for breakfast. Drove to the food co-op to refill the spa water jug and bought a Kale, Lime, and Apple juice drink. Pulled into work at the spa. It’s Farmer’s Market today so big crowd downtown and all the local shops have outdoor sales today because it is the Dog Days of Summer sale. Dark Star Visuals, Flying Possum Leather,Swift’s Jewelers, Town and Country, Terra Tots, The Mustache. These are the people that make up the fabric of our community. I love them.

Farmer’s Market with beautiful bouquets walking by, babies in strollers, dog’s on leashes. Music on every corner. Fresh blackberries, cause you know it’s July. Zucchini, lettuce, TOMATOES! Lots of tomatoes. Good tomatoes. Beefsteak tomatoes. Basil and rosemary, and everything that smells like summer. And did I mention bouquets? Big, beautiful bouquets.

At work we did a spa party for 10 year old girls while their moms walked the market. We did another spa party for a bride to be and 5 of her friends. I did a foot massage for some poor sweet neuropathic feet. I did a stress point massage for an aerial dance teacher who had no idea how tight her teres major, teres minor, and subscapularis were. Another hour and a half massage for somebody whose 12 year old daughter conspired with relatives to buy her some spa time, how awesome is that?

Body waxes and duets happened in our space today.

A friend came by with her daughter and we dreamed about going to Tahoe for a girl’s week. I got to see an employee whom I have not seen since she had her baby. I love her.

Another friend came by to see if she had money on her account. She didn’t want to use it, she’s just saving it for a rainy day. Her baby is due soon. She’s waiting, but she is happy knowing she has a gift certificate.

Another woman bought $500 worth of gift certificates for 3 of her employess with gift bags of soaps as a beautiful addition.

Had C.H.E.W. (Clunk’s Hungry Express Wagon) deliver some sushi while I balanced the drawer.

11 hour day in the life of a spa girl.

Now to put on my Nursing Student Cap. I have a test over 6 chapters of pathophysiology on Monday. Better get cracking.

Wendy Finn is the mother of 4 boys, owner of I.M. Spa, a Raw Food Enthusiast and educator, a world traveler in pursuit of superior massage education, a Master Massage Therapist of 20 plus years, a gardener, and a nursing student. She’s passionate about touching people and sharing health.

It’s 11 o’clock at night. Yes, I’m studying again. 2 weeks left in this semester of Pathophysiology and we’re studying how to prevent or treat Type 2 Diabetes.

My pathophysiology bible says “25.8 million people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with Diabetes, another estimated 7 million are undiagnosed,” and “diabetes costs us $174 billion a year.” To put that in a little better perspective it helps to know that there are 313 million people in the U.S., so roughly 1/3 have diabetes.

Holy canoli! That is amazing.

Later in the book it states that it’s best to “prevent and treat Type 2 Diabetes with dietary measures and exercise. Resulting weight loss causes an improved glucose tolerance.”

I wonder what it would be like to be Type 2 Diabetic and go to the doctor. Do they prescribe diets and exercise? Is there a place patients go several times a week, the way you would go to the physical therapist, to learn how to change your food habits? Maybe there is a live-in retreat where you can go for immersion training to develop a healthier lifestyle until you have enough knowledge and practice to be on your own. Maybe there is a home health nurse or dietician who goes food shopping with you to help you learn how to make healthier meal plans.

Surely that is something that could be prescribed. Surely insurance would pay for that. Or maybe that is not included in the $176 billion cost.

Sheesh! I would totally love being a nurse in that kind of setting.

Is there something like that out there?

Wendy Finn is the mother of 4 boys, owner of I.M. Spa, a Raw Food Enthusiast and educator, a world traveler in pursuit of superior massage education, a Master Massage Therapist of 20 plus years, a gardener, and a nursing student. She’s passionate about touching people and sharing health.

On our work retreat Spa Girl Travel escape to Dallas, we set out to 1. Spend many hours at a spa lounging, 2. Explore Raw, Vegetarian, or Vegan restaurants, and 3. Spend time with each other, not passing each other in the hallway on the way to our next treatment at work (we work at I.M. Spa).

Jennie, Julie, and Katie at our Hotel

We really have a great crew.

Jennie is our quilting queen who flies the front desk and makes sure all of our appointments come together as planned. She writes the newsletter for the quilter’s organization in Northwest Arkansas in her downtime. And she’s a joy to everyone she meets. She loves this picture she took outside of the Cosmic Cafe Vegetarian restaurant in Dallas when we were there.

Cosmic Cafe Smiley Face

Julie is our sports massage gal from Iowa. She just got married, lord help her. Hope is in the air. It’s a beautiful thing. She loves to upcycle old decrepit furniture and make it beautiful again, especially if she can do it with her family members. She’s like the stealth bomber. We never really know when she arrives at work because she’s so stealthy. And she has an amazing smile.

Katie is our certified skin nerd. She loves skincare, body waxing, skincare products, and anything to do with skin. She spends her downtime traveling to awesome concerts across the country, even as far as Boston. We have songs on our playlist in the treatment rooms at I.M. Spa that Katie and I have to control ourselves to keep from just outright dancing during a session. So yes, while your eyes are closed during your facial or massage appointment, we might just be dancing while we work.

Lisa is our professional people poker. (Acupuncturist or Doctor of Oriental Medicine if you prefer). She is so zen that sometimes I just sit next to her to catch the vibe. She’s a no drama mama of 2 from New York who had a miraculous recovery with acupuncture, couldn’t believe that people didn’t know about it, and decided that that was what she wanted to do with her life. Pretty cool.

Jessica Crass is our powerhouse farmgirl from Missouri who traveled the world, got an education in social work, went to massage school in New Mexico, and settled in to Northwest Arkansas to have a family farm, raise a family, and build community. When people ask me if the therapists at I.M. Spa give a deep enough massage I tell them that Jessica drives a tractor for crying out loud. Yep. And she’s a Doula to boot. Hard and soft all at the same time.

Jessica. Gotta Love a Tractor Driving Gal.

Jessica Patterson, Nora, and Andrea couldn’t make it with us on the trip to Dallas. Nora, who’s been with me since 2006, just had her second son, so she’s tied down for a while in attachment parenting land. Nora is solid and steady as a rock. She’s a ‘can do’ woman who loves gardening and making tinctures, crafting, and projects (like re-upholstering a chair).

Andrea, our gymnast, Ultimate playing, massage therapist trained in Oregon is similarly tied down with her sweet one year old son. And these days we only see her intermittently.

And Patterson, our multi-talented esthetician/massage therapist is still adapting to her move to Fayettevelle from East Arkansas and needs to put down a few more roots before any travel plans can be made. Maybe they’ll make it with us on the next trip.

These are the amazing women who make I.M. Spa tick. They are funny, grounded, community serving, hard, soft, loving, determined, creative, flexible, beautiful, and excellent at their jobs. They are integral threads in the fabric of our community, and I’m honored to be able to work with them and have them in my life on a daily basis.

Fayetteville is a better place because of these women.

Wendy Finn is the mother of 4 boys, owner of I.M. Spa, a Raw Food Enthusiast and educator, a world traveler in pursuit of superior massage education, a Master Massage Therapist of 20 plus years, a gardener, and a nursing student. She’s passionate about touching people and sharing health.

We Spa Girls from I.M. Spa, as a work retreat, just traveled to Dallas to relax at the spa and discover excellent raw food and we were not disappointed! Even though Dallas sadly only has one Raw Food restaurant (that I could find) the food there was beautiful and delicious, and the service was spectacular.

Be Raw! Live Long.

When I’m checking out a new raw food restaurant, what I’m looking for is something that I’m not already doing myself. What does this restaurant do that is different and awesome? It turns out that while Be Raw covers the the standard spaghetti and meatballs, the Pad Thai, and Taco Salad, this dish, the Coconut Kale Enchiladas, stole the show.

Raw Food Coconut Kale Enchiladas

Not only is it beautifully presented, but it is so yummy and complex. Marinated Kale wrapped in coconut meat wraps, and drizzled with 2 types of raw cashew cheeses. And yes those are green and red picos on the side.

If you have never encountered coconut wraps before let me just tell you that they are not easy to prepare at all. To make them you have to use a cleaver to open a Thai coconut, scrape out the meat, whiz it up in a blender with your spices, and dehydrate them. It’s a process.

I felt very decadent eating such hard work.

And for dessert?

Raw Food Brownie

Be Raw has some amazing desserts and this one was fantastic. I have not yet ventured into the world of brownies with my raw food time in the kitchen, but this one certainly gives me something to aspire to.

What the other Spa Girls were having?

Spaghetti and MeatballsRaw Food Lasagna

Raw Food Taco Salad

Pad Thai

Chocolate Cashew Cheesecake! AAAAaaauuuuuuggghhhhh! To die for!

Raw Food Cashew Chocolate CheesecakeService With Enthusiasm

Our server was fabulous. Animated, enthusiastic, and educating everybody who had never been there before about what it means to eat raw. You can’t see his shirt completely, but it has a picture of a dinosaur on it with text that says Lacinato Kale (dinosaur kale). And in the teeth of the dinosaur he had colored in bits of green to show that the dinosaur had in fact been eating kale.

The I.M. Spa Girls, not including me, putting a smile on even though I am keeping them from eating.

We all loved our food and Jessica and I were still stuffed when we arrived home 5 hours later. We also went to King Spa and Cosmic Cafe during this trip. Details yet to come! Fun Fun!

Wendy Finn is the mother of 4 boys, owner of I.M. Spa, a Raw Food Enthusiast and educator, a world traveler in pursuit of superior massage education, a Master Massage Therapist of 20 plus years, a gardener, and a nursing student. She’s passionate about touching people and sharing health.

Heart Disease is the #1 cause of death in the United States, and High Blood Pressure is very often a precursor to heart disease. Yikes! What does it mean to live with high blood pressure?

As many of you know, I’m in Nursing School and this summer I’m taking Pathophysiology–the physiology of disease. The class is amazing and I love it. I wish I could just download the whole book right into my head. The same thing that makes me bad at winning Scrabble, a love of long beautiful words and not enough love of scoring points, makes me a horrible student. No I didn’t make many points on that word, but look at it. Isn’t it a beautiful, luscious word?

My Beloved Pathophysiology Book

I want to know the whole patho book, frontwards and backwards. I go on tangents, looking up research on conditions and compare it to other conditions I’ve heard of, watching Khan academy videos, and Ted talks. There just aren’t enough hours to study the way I want to and still do well on the tests. I find myself continually having to reel it in and focus on the high points that we might be tested on.

I know. My life is pretty amazing if that’s all I have to complain about. How awesome that I get to spend all my time geeking out about how incredibly beautiful and complex the human body is. The past couple of weeks we have been studying Cardio Pathologies. Hypertension is particularly interesting to me since my mom has been learning what it means to live with intermittant high blood pressure.

“One in three Americans has hypertension, and more than 2/3 of those older than age 60 are affected,” Understanding Pathophysiology. Those are some crazy numbers! How to manage your high blood pressure? Eat more vegetables, exercise regularly, MANAGE YOUR STRESS, don’t smoke, and don’t drink (actually the American heart association says limit alcohol. But I’m in the camp of, “if it’s not good for us then why are we doing this?”) I’m not going to focus on the eat more vegetables and stop smoking issues today. I just want to talk about managing stress.

I don’t understand why the American Heart Association says “stress is not considered a risk factor” for high blood pressure. Especially since we know that stress, fear, and anxiety cause our body to react with high levels of cortisol (a stress hormone), as well as causing the sympathetic nervous system to release epinephrine and norepinephrine–2 powerful vasoconstrictors that cause your heart rate to go up under stress. Maybe they say that because it is so hard to quantify ‘stress.’ Everybody has a different tolerance for stress.

Think of a stressful situation that you have been in recently. How did your body feel when you were in the situation? Were your shoulders tight? Was your breath short? Did your whole body feel contracted? Was your stomach upset?

I lied. I said I wouldn’t talk about food. But I found this article about salt intake from the Yale Heart Study and I couldn’t control myself. Salt is a huge contributor to high blood pressure. And this article talks about the high salt content of so many of the meals at popular big chain restaurants. It’s interesting to note that daily recommended intake of 1500mg is easily achieved in one meal at a big chain restaurant like Red Lobster or Kentucky Fried Chicken. And it’s easy to find meals in the 5,000mg range. Hmm. That’s more than the daily recommendation of 3 days combined. But that’s a whole other deal.

What I really want to say is that Relaxing takes practice. Here in the U.S. we’re not used to relaxing. It is not something our culture values. In European cultures it is common to see people on holiday for a couple months at a time. Vacations are encouraged. Down time is valued. Here in the states we feel guilty for taking time off. We work ridiculously long hours and even when we are off of work at home we are moving 100 miles a minute with activities for our kids and lists upon lists of things to do at home, and most of them don’t include sitting on the porch watching the kids play while sipping lemonade.

My mom has had to learn how to slow down, to listen to her bodywhen it is spiraling out of control. She has had to learn how to pay attention to repetitive thought patterns that send her blood pressure through the roof.

Things you can do to relieve stress on a daily basis?

5 minute yoga/stretch breaks at your desk (I get a lot of great 10 minute yoga classes at YogaGlo).

daily 10 minute meditation before getting your morning tea (YogaGlo can introduce you to meditation too). And no, you probably shouldn’t do that coffee because it’s a stimulant-trade it for something else warm and yummy like tea.

daily 10 minute meditation before going to bed

running/walking daily (Run Keeper has a great app to map out your walks/runs, track your miles, and help you with your goals).

Breathing deeply, consciously in your daily activities. So easy to breathe deeply in traffic, at stop lights, while working at the desk, any time you find yourself holding your breath.

Set a timer for a 20 minute siesta when you are experiencing that low energy part of the day.

At the spa we see people on the massage table all the time who are so unaccustomed to relaxing that it takes several sessions before they learn how to be a noodle on the table.

It’s okay. It takes time. It’s important. It gets easier. You don’t have to feel guilty about taking time for relaxation.

Your body needs you to take time. Your heart needs you to listen. It needs you to relax. It needs you to play.

The people around you who care about you need you to relax. They need you to play.

Taking time to relax every day could very well save your life.Schedule a massage appointment at I.M. Spa: 479-251-7422

Wendy Finn is the mother of 4 boys, owner of I.M. Spa, a Raw Food Enthusiast and educator, a world traveler in pursuit of superior massage education, a Master Massage Therapist of 20 plus years, a gardener, and a nursing student. She’s passionate about touching people and sharing health.

To celebrate our sweet little business making it through the challenges of me being gone most of the time during my first semester at nursing school, we Spa Girls at I.M. Spa piled into the minivan and travelled to Dallas for a couple of days of Spa travel, foot massages, and raw food–my favorite things!

We Made It!

There was much discussion in the weeks before we left for Dallas about the fact that the spa we were going to required that you get naked and shower before getting into the hot tubs or advancing on to the saunas. I had no idea that people felt such an aversion to locker room nudity, but then I am a veteran of Esalen and Breitenbush where co-ed nudity is common at hot spring bathing areas. I think I’ll have to give an entire post to spa nudity in the future. Needless to say, the spa girls survived the nudity and hopefully are minimally scarred for life.

In Front of Cosmic Cafe, Dallas

Our first stop was in Frisco, just North of Dallas, where some of my family from Texas met with us for foot massages at this place called Shuang Feng Foot Massage. I’ll fill in more pictures and details in future posts, but this is a quick rundown of where we went. After foot massages we had lunch at Cosmic Cafe vegetarian restaurant. By then it was 2 o’clock and we headed over to King Spa where we relaxed, steamed, sauna’d, and dozed (one of us studied–a lot) until midnight. Yes you can easily spend 9 hours lounging in the spa. We stayed at Hilton’s Doubletree in Farmer’s Branch and Lisa and I woke up in the morning, and rather than finding a yoga studio, decided to do a YogaGlo class before we headed to Be Raw–the only raw food restaurant in Dallas. But man it was amazing!

After lunch at Be Raw we headed home to Fayetteville, Arkansas. The girls watched Casanova with Heath Ledger and Pitch Perfect and we made it home by 7. I was still full from lunch by the time I made it home. A lovely weeked of spa travel–yum!